I’ve learned how to worry and stress less recently
This is no mean feat. I am a world-class worrier, and have spent a lot of my life stressing about things. Things that happened in my past, and things that I imagine may happen in my future.
It’s not been a lot of fun.
And I thought it was just my lot. It was just how I was built. I was a worrier.
But since I’ve been experimenting with happiness in these last couple of months, I’ve learned that much of that was learned behaviour, habitual behaviour, ruts in the road that I’d worn over and over until they felt like the only tracks I could run on.
That isn’t the case, I’ve learned in the last couple of months. There is another way of being in the world, of being in my skin, that doesn’t involve all that worrying, all that stressing.
And this new understanding, and my experiments in learning how this works for me specifically, has made the difference that’s made the difference. I’ve learned how to steer my life in a different way.
I hope that my sharing of my experiments with happy will give you the idea to have your own experiments with happiness, and to discover what makes you happier, more often.
I am happiest when (#10):
I’ve gotten things done
I love ticking things off a list. Oooh is that a satisfying feeling! Creating the list has more of a determined feeling, it’s necessary but not especially enjoyable. But ticking Items Completed off the list feels like liberation, it’s a sweet and rewarding sensation. If I’m feeling a special need to connect with that satisfied, ‘completion’ feeling, I use my thick marker, which gives an extra fat check mark that is probably visible from across the room.